Tag: student struggle

Plain Words is back with issue three, featuring news of resistance in Bloomington; reportbacks from efforts of solidarity with long-term anarchist prisoners, imprisoned anarchist comrade Eric King, and those arrested on the January 20th demonstrations against the inauguration of Donald Trump; a look back at the 2013 strike at Indiana University; and an introductory essay on self-organization via affinity groups.

CONTENTS
“Introduction to the Affinity Group”
June 11th International Day of Solidarity with Long-Term Anarchist Prisoners
Noise Demonstration Against Social Cleansing
Interview on the 2013 Indiana University Strike
Banner Drop in Solidarity with Eric King
Solidarity with the J20 Anti-Inauguration Demonstrators
A chronology of action and solidarity

While private security and cops from three different agencies were locking down and surrounding Franklin Hall on Tuesday night in defense of “scientist” and writer Charles Murray (who spews all manner of racist, misogynist, and oppressive ideas and “research”) and hundreds of Indiana University students, faculty, and others were gathered for a protest, we went to IU professor Aurelian Craiutu’s office to glue the locks and paint an anti-racist message.

Aurelian is the head of the Tocqueville Program – part of the Political Science Department – that invited Murray to speak at IU in order to explore, he said, the “Trump phenomenon.” Whatever the reason for the invitation, we abhor it. While we have no faith in the university, we do think that public figures like Charles Murray and the institutions and people who support him should be confronted. But those confrontations do not always have to take place on terrain that is presented to us. We don’t have to wait until a profiteering racist shows up on campus…or remain within the police barricades. While public opposition can be important, there is much that can be done when one is not surrounded on all sides by rows of police and cell phone cameras. Nor must we remain within the ideological terrain of the institutions regarding civility and the sanctity of property. Outrage at small acts of vandalism is laughable alongside the experience of so many students and others who are just now losing trust in the university that they expected to protect them. But now the interests and character of IU are made clear.

Shout out to all those who stood up against Murray, his supporters, and the massive police force assembled to protect him. Our anger didn’t subside when Murray was escorted off campus. One can move rather freely through many parts of campus. Glue is cheap. Let’s be creative.

General Gelina was a revolutionary, urban guerrilla, and graduate of IU. Born Angela Atwood in North Haledon, New Jersey, Gelina attended IU, majoring in education and singing in the Pickers, a musical group in the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority. After moving to California and leaving her husband in 1973, she joined the Symbionese Liberation Army with two other IU graduates, Bill Harris and Emily Montague.

The SLA was an armed struggle group springing from relationships between rebellious prisoners and revolutionaries on the outside. They developed clandestine networks with prison rebels, executed a prison break, robbed banks to fund their activities, and carried out attacks on state and capitalist institutions and those who protect them. In their most memorable act, they kidnapped newspaper heiress Patty Hearst, forcing her father to fund a massive distribution of free food to poor people throughout California. Gelina and five other SLA fighters were murdered by the FBI and Los Angeles police on May 17, 1974. The six refused to submit, only ceasing their fight when the house they were in burned down around them.

Gelina may be gone, but the revolutionary force of life continues: joyous, unrelenting, armed.

Bloomington People’s History is an ongoing project by local individuals that highlights the legacy of repression and resistance in and around Bloomington, Indiana. All of the posters can be found on to our poster page.

We encourage anyone who is interested to create their own People’s History posters and email them to us. Let’s keep the history of revolt alive!